Special Guests Invincible and Waajeed

I absolutely enjoyed being able to talk to real underground artists in class the other day. You can really tell that Waajeed and Invincible really respect their craft and for those reasons I respect them.

One point I found really interesting was the MTV incident. I think it's very unfair that they refused to play her song on the air beacuse of its "suicidal undertones" when we see clear messages in mainstream artists all the time. People like Eminem, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga whole music videos point to death and sometimes the song has nothing to do with it. But Invicible's song actually had meaning behind it and was somewhat of a outcry for the people in her community that have had to deal with someone close to them attempt or commit suicide.

Also, I looked Waajeed up on Wikipedia and he has a really successful background in music and I would have never known. Sometimes its better to be behind the scenes successful than in the spotlight all the time.



THE CELEBRITY USES OF TWITTER

Recently I learned that celebrities are being paid to tweet for certain companies on the popular social networking site Twitter. Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet". This shift from celebrities on TV commercials and billboards to social networking sites is no surprise in this age of technology. But the main question is: Are paid tweets really effective? In my opinion, paid tweets are no more influential than a comercial on television. According to John Bell, "weaken the overall value of social media which relies on trust first not reach". The only person really benefitting from this new trend is the celebrity. The fans aka "followers" are being used and deceived by the celebrity. We follow them because we want to know what is going on in their lives, not to see our timeline filled with advertisements. Vice-President and Co-Founder of ad.ly Derek Rey reports that they did over 22,000 endorsements on Twitter in 2010
and did not have one single negative event. He also stated that celebs such as Kim Kardashian and Justin Beiber average over 18,000 clicks per tweet. The heavy traffic Kardashian recieves allows her to be paid $10,000 per tweet.In an article I read by Eric Sherman, he argues that "paying for tweets is an activity for idiots".

Celebrities and Twitter

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/10/if-you-get-paid-to-tweet-disclose-it-uk-says/

According to Twitter's website, this is what Twitter's purpose is:

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations.

Lately, many celebrities have been using their Twitter accounts to endorse and advertise different products and ideas.I recently discovered that celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Soulja Boy, and Charlie Sheen get paid thousands by different companies to tweet. I do not understand how important anybody's tweets could be that they are worth thousands of dollars. If any money at all! This is just one of the many ways social media has changed society and its values again. Celebrities getting paid to tweet takes out the fun of following them. It's supposed to be genuine and a relaxed social environment. Must we be bombarded with ads everywhere we go?

The article I read talks about how the Federal Trade Commission has now made it an official rule for stars to disclose at the end of the tweet  if its a paid advertisement. I think this is very fair and seperates the good content worth reading from a stupid ad.

This video is an exclusive interview that the Business Insider ddi with Ms.Kardashian. I totally agree that Twitter should get a cut from companies paying the money to advertise via celebrities.

Week 7: Facebook (Catfish Film) and The Twitterverse

WHAT MAKES US PUT SO MUCH TRUST IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES?

In my opinion, I think we expect everyone to be as normal as ourselves. If we are using social networking sites for it's intended purpose then we just assume that majority is also. Many times social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all have their own kind of world. We forget that outside this virtual community, is the real world. In the real world their sick minded people who abuse their basic human rights.

Even though we know people are making fake profiles, we still agree to "friend" them? And what does friendship really mean on Facebook?

Being someone's friend on Facebook has taken on a completely new meaning then what it would mean in real life. When we see someone's profile and we know them, we "friend" them. Some people like to brag about having so many friends on Facebook and having a lot of followers on Twitter. It's more like a game of how popular you can be amongst people you really do not know much about. Friendship on Facebook is simply the idea of being connected virtually.

What are the chances of what happened in the film happening in real life?

I think the chances are very high. People forget that this documentary was based off a nine month relationship or interaction. I think the extent that Nev went through to meet with the family and Megan was more than an average person would do,but then again all people are different so it just depends on who the person is. I know a girl at my high school who actually did this. She created several profiles posing as attractive boys. The target was girls at our school, many people believed they were real until she began to slip up and get caught in her web of lies. One girl even had a relationship with one of the fake boys which was really wierd.